This invention relates to a bottle rack for the horizontal storage and display of long-necked bottles such as are commonly used in the storage and marketing of wine and champagne, in particular a rack which so supports such bottles solely by their necks.
Various bottle support devices are known in the prior art which utilize upright planar members with circular openings therein to engage the necks of bottles and support said bottles thereby. See, e.g., Leventhal U.S. Pat. No. Des. 250,625; Leventhal U.S. Pat. No. Des. 252,065; Loud et al. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 253,802; Barnes U.S. Pat. No. 2,338,310; and Cole U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,124.
These prior art bottle supports utilize circular apertures having a slightly larger diameter than the necks of the bottles to be supported thereby. In many of these bottle supports the neck of a bottle being supported contacts the support at one point along the lower front of the aperture and one point along the upper rear of the aperture. Only two points of contact are made between said bottle and the support structure, thereby allowing a considerable amount of undesirable lateral movement of said bottle. This lateral play causes the bottles in the rack to shake from side to side when the rack is disturbed and, in addition to giving the impression that the bottles are improperly secured, can stir up sediment in those bottles in which it occurs. This potential for undesirable lateral movement is accentuated when the circular openings must be enlarged to allow for the insertion of such large-capped or large-corked bottles as are used for champagne, and the like. In addition, the solid boards, walls, panels, or prisms required by these designs add considerably to the weight and apparent bulk of the rack structure.
Attempts at reducing lateral play through the addition of a third point of contact along the neck of the bottle, obtained through the use of steep aperture angles and/or planar member inclination angles, have been largely unsuccessful due to the fact that the third point is then positioned in the same vertical plane as the original two points with relation to the axis of the bottle. In addition, the steep angles required cause any sediment in the bottles to settle undesirably at the neck and create difficulty in reading the labels on the bottles.
Additional attempts at eliminating the potential for lateral movement have been made through the use of semi-resilient materials such as pressed paper or cardboard for the upright support members. While the edges of the supporting opening crush slightly under the load of the supported bottle such that the opening conforms to the shape of said bottle, it is seen that repeated insertion and removal of bottles causes a deterioration in the integrity of the structure. See Belokin, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,389.
Where there have been attempts at eliminating the potential for lateral movement through the use of projecting support pegs, considerable bulk has been added to the structure. In addition, the structure itself has become conventional in that the rack supports the bottles in tiers rather than by the necks of said bottles. See Altemose U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,065.
Nowhere in the prior art is there seen an effective, durable, lightweight, and compact means of supporting bottles rigidly by their necks in a horizontal position while eliminating any lateral movement of said bottles so supported.